ABWH and ARW – 257 – Yes Music Podcast

Produced by Preston Frazier, David Gordon, Bill Govier and Wayne Hall.

This week we welcome Wayne Hall onto the podast to talk about his ARW concert experience and how he managed to get Rick Wakeman to record an intro to the show! Mark reviews An Evening of Yes Music Plus from ABWH and there’s a 2 pence about the set list for the first Yes shows in Japan.

Show notes and links

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Theme music

The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org

Also as far as the Japan Tour. ..haha I enjoy your brand of humor but we knew Jay was going with them to Japan..we were just unsure as to the extent of his involvement. Now we have a better idea.- Mark Anthony K

Excellent contributions from both Paul and Wayne, especial well done to him for getting the Rick clip. Please continue to get more listeners on the show. What about the listener from Japan who sends you stuff? Yes being over there and all.

I’ve not come across the Trooper / Generator thing before. When did that start and why?

On the live album, I bought the VHS & double cd when it came out in ’93. The CD tracks are as follows
Britten’s intro
TAAW/Teakbois/Owner
Clap/MfaD
Rick’s medley
Long Distance Runaround
Birthright
And You and I
CTTE
Themes
Brother of Mine
Heart of the Sunrise
Roundabout

Disappointing not to have Starship Trooper, the LP version seems better to me.

I got so caught up in the excitement of the interview with Kevin and Mark, that I left out a couple of interesting details. The following info is what I left out.

BEFORE the concert, I had met a great guy named Bill Tuck. He saw my YES colophon shirt at the Rio Hotel down the street from the Palms and just checked in – “so, you’re going to the concert tonight, right?” I said “of course” and we chatted for a bit and he bids farewell.

I decide to go to the place a few hours beforehand in the hopes of either meeting some like-minded fans or, ideally, catching one of ARW at one of the tables or something. That’s one of my “daydream fantasies” – playing Craps with Rick. It’s right up there with “seated next to Neal Peart on the airplane but faking like I don’t know who he is and we just chat up a storm because he’s not all bothered by a gushing fan and then, hours later, as we’re deplaning, I pull out my Ghost Rider book and ask him to sign it and he gives that look that says ‘thank you for not freaking out the whole trip’ and gladly signs it” fantasy.

Sure enough, it’s only 2pm, and doors open at 7pm but I meet Bill again right outside the venue. He’s there with Brenda, and they both had driven from Montana to see the show. They saw the Salt Lake City show just before. That’s committment. We must have stood there talking, the three of us, for more than 40 minutes, reminiscing about YES, favorite albums, songs, and oh my goodness the lyrics. Bill is a wonder with lyrics.

So after a while we decide we want to grab a bite, so we head to buffet and spend another hour chatting up all things YES.

A bit after 4pm, I go to my Meet and Greet which I detailed on the podcast. I told Bill and Brenda that I’d meet them after the concert. Turns out I saw them in the venue before the concert and regaled them with the Meet and Greet experience… and told them about YMP, and Ruth’s “Thank You Chris” page. I recommended they try to get a wristband if they’re still available (I was wearing mine proudly and saw at least one other fan with it on). (Thank you Ruth!)

Between the M&G and the Concert, I rush to the Bell Captain to check my Yes Years signed portrait and my ARW bag. I don’t want to keep up with them during the concert.

I’m going up one of the back stairs, and there’s a guy walking with me that looks a little familiar, and I thought for sure he was in the M&G – tall, salt-pepper hair, but he doesn’t have his ARW VIP badge on. I comment with that observation – “Hey, weren’t you in the Meet and Greet? Wasn’t it great? Where’s your badge? You’re going to want to keep that!” He said “no, I wasn’t in the M&G but I’m going to be part of one after the show.” I said – “cool! You just look really familiar, so I must be mistaken”. He said “I get that a lot – people always say I look like ‘someone’s brother'”. I replied – “hmm, well are you?” He said “what?” “Someone’s brother – do you have any siblings?” He laughed and said, “you know, I do have a couple of sisters, so I guess I *am* someone’s brother!” We both laughed a bit and went on with our respective journeys.

AFTER the concert, I saw Bill and Brenda in the venue, so I walked over to them and we once again started talking about the concert. Michel, who I met during the M&G also came by with some of his family and we talked further. Michel says “you’ll never guess who sat next to me in 2nd row!” We ask who and he says “John Tesh!” We think that’s kind of cool, and respect for Tesh goes up knowing he’s a fan of ARW. The usher came by after everyone else but us were gone and said we’d have to either help put up chairs or leave, so we left.

We go out the back way and there are a few people milling about. We decide maybe the band will come out and say hi, so we hang out as well. We talk further and go over the show, how great ARW is, and how YES fans just somehow are the best – no matter what else divides us, our love for YES cuts right through to our hearts and we are all brothers.

After about 15 minutes, we’re thinking maybe they’re not coming so we head to the elevator. Who comes out, but Lou Molino! Naturally, we decided to stay. He has a backpack on and doesn’t seem like he’s in a hurry or trying to dodge us, so we chat with Lou, and I get a selfie and we tell him how much we enjoyed his contribution. Gosh, he’s tiny for how much he puts out on those drums. We all got to speak to him and thank him.

Lou moves on from our group and starts talking to the tall salt-pepper hair guy I saw in the stairway. I’m guessing this is his after-show M&G he was talking about. Brenda sees him and says “Oh my gosh! That’s John Tesh!” Hmm. When I look at him again, I do see it’s John Tesh but I completely didn’t recognize him at the time in the stairway.

So I wait for him to finish his talk with Lou (didn’t want to interrupt at all) and when he’s done, I call out to John Tesh and say “hey! I guess I’ll apologize now for not recognizing you in the stairway, but I must say you handled it well, what with your ‘look like someone’s brother’ comment”. He laughed again and I asked if I could appeal to his celebrity once more and get a picture with him. He’s gracious as he says “Sure” and I do get a picture.

About 5 minutes later, Jon comes out a side door and starts talking to a few people. Wow! Jon’s there too! I get a little bit of video of that for posterity’s sake, but very out of the way so I don’t interrupt anyone’s moment with Jon. He works the crowd for a little bit and Bill and Brenda are able to go say hi, get a picture and have a special memory to take home with him.

I know that I still have a burning question for Jon that I wasn’t able to ask in the Q&A or in the M&G, and that’s this – What is Jon’s birth time? My wife is a professional astrologer, and I’d like her to do a Natal Analysis for Jon, but without a birth time, it’s not as accurate or helpful. So while I’m hanging in the background trying to find the right time, I notice another gentleman kind of hovering around Jon, and I recognize him from the Q&A, and he was also hovering just outside the Q&A. During the Q&A when one of the fans asked when they were going to tour Japan, Rick first said “June” and then Trevor said “wait, no it’s May” and then Jon or Rick turned to this gentlemen I’m describing and asked “When are we going to Japan?” and he replied “April, I think… yes, April. April 17, 18th or somewhere around then”. I thought – “wow, this guy is probably pretty important.” But I didn’t recognize him, and I didn’t see anyone else in our group whispering or commenting on who it was.

So, back to the after-party get-together, I see this same gentleman who’s hovering outside the perimeter of Jon’s milling with the fans, and I comment to him “it’s so great they’re back together – I’d love to ask Jon about his birth time.” He acknowledges me and kind of puts his finger up like “Wait a bit, and I’m sure it’ll happen.” Jon is talking to a group of people who are there on purpose and knew Jon would come out. So he introduces that group of people to this gentleman I’d been talking to and says “and this is our manager, Brian Lane.”

I’m dumbfounded – not only did I not know that Brian Lane was managing them, but I missed out on the opportunity to thank HIM for his contributions and maybe get my Yes Years photo signed by him as well! Had I known it was him, I probably would have said “So, do you like it when Rick calls you “Brian ‘deal-a-day’ Lane or does it bother you?” And then, knowing he’s “deal-a-day” Lane, he’d probably charge me for his autograph, but I’d pay it. I truly would.

After a bit, Jon is walking by and I said – “Jon, my wife is a professional astrologer – can I get your birth time?” When he smiled and immediately said “Scorpio!” I realized he must have thought I said “birth sign” instead of “birth time.” So I said “oh of course you’re Scorpio, but do you know what *time* you were born?” That madd him stop a bit, I’m hoping because the question is interesting – we all know Jon has been party to a lot of New Age things: aromatherapy, fairies, shastras, and the like – and he thinks for a second and says “10 past 6” and starts walking back to his exit. I’m super happy!

Then I realize – wait, that narrows it down to just two times – morning or evening and oh my gosh I just ruined my ability to ask him and before I could blurt out “AM or PM?!?!?!” he stops again and turns and says “in the morning” with a knowing look. I’m choosing to believe the knowing look meant he knew that a specific time matters for a birth chart, and I’m super happy again.

With just about all my dreams come true [and I know Bill and Brenda were thrilled to meet Jon and get a picture – not just of him but his glowing shoelaces!], they offer me a ride back to the Rio Hotel, where we’re all staying. We get back around midnight and I let them know I’m probably going to go gamble a bit if they want to join. They don’t gamble per se, but we ended up sitting at a Pai Gow table (where the action is very very slow and it’s hard to lose money fast) until 3am, again going through albums, trivia, opinions, etc.

This trip was my most memorable Yes trip so far. I’m looking forward to what the Universe surprises me with next.